In one known cooling system for alcoholic beverages, a chiller coil is in intimate contact with the evaporator coil of a refrigeration cooling unit, and a constant vapor pressure is maintained on the refrigerant in the evaporator coil so that the coolant in the chiller coil is cooled to a substantially constant temperature. The chiller coil, evaporator coil, and associated equipment are contained in a closed housing.
An example of this type of unit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,552, to Adams, assigned to Perfection Equipment, Inc. of Gurney, Ill. This type of unit is advantageous because the temperature of the beverage, such as beer, can be maintained at a constant range, and only a small amount of bath coolant is required. An insulated container may be used to hold the coolant. The container acts as a holding tank for the coolant and no refrigeration takes place in the tank. Part of a chiller coil extends from the housing and is used to chill beer lines which may be placed concentric about the chiller line. The unit can be placed out-of-sight and the beer lines can extend a few feet from the housing to a tap, or spigot.
Although this type of unit is advantageous for long beer line runs from a backroom area to a spigot, with some beverages it is still more desirable to dispense from a bottle. For example, some specialty beverages, or liqueurs, are viscous and have higher alcohol contents, i.e. about 35%, than most beers and wines. These liqueurs are often bottled in artistically designed bottles, and placed on compact, artistically designed dispensing machines which are readily visible to the public. The bottles are inverted, mounted on the machine, and the beverage withdrawn from the bottles on the machine.
Often these specialty beverages are served chilled to temperatures below freezing, i.e. about 15.degree. F. Adequate chilling of the beverage is necessary, while also maintaining the bottles on display and positioned on top of the machine housing in an inclined or inverted position to allow beverage withdrawal. Thus, it is necessary to withdraw liqueur from the bottles periodically while: 1) ensuring that the bottles are displayed on the housing such as in an inclined (e.g. slanted or inverted) state to allow the viscous liquid to flow therefrom, 2) ensuring that the dispensed liqueur is adequately cooled even in times of high usage and dispensing activity, and 3) ensuring adequate control when dispensing the viscous beverage.